


gravity's brief hold

by Riverdaughter



Series: Dick and Dami Week 2021 [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: BAMF Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne Feels, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Gen, Hurt Damian Wayne, Hurt Dick Grayson, Hurt/Comfort, POV Damian Wayne, Protective Dick Grayson, dickanddamiweek2021, never actually used that one, some vigilantes were harmed in the making of this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:14:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29969676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riverdaughter/pseuds/Riverdaughter
Summary: Dick and Dami Week 2021: Day 4Comfort Food /Fear of Abandonment/ “Please don’t leave me”Phosphorescent red glares up at them from what used to an Estee-Lauder display case.“Take Venom, say goodbye to fine lines and wrinkles forever,” Nightwing chuckles softly, but Damian knows him well enough now and can hear the worry in his voice.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne
Series: Dick and Dami Week 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199723
Comments: 2
Kudos: 93
Collections: DickAndDamiWeek2021





	gravity's brief hold

**Author's Note:**

> So this is pretty au in that I have magically waved Batman Inc into nonexistence, no one is dead :) and everyone is (mostly) getting along....

It’s supposed to be a simple recon mission; everyone is more or less back at the Manor and getting along to Dick’s surprised delight. Bruce is back, alive and Dick has laid aside the mantle of the Bat with an alacrity at Damian feels is unwarranted.

Dick was a more than adequate Batman in his opinion and more to the point, he is _Damian’s_ Batman in a way that his father may never be. In some ways that relationship is the one that Damian is least prepared for; he has come to a distant but mutual respect with Todd, a grudging admiration for Cain, sham hostility with Brown and a hard-won armistice with Drake, less a few derisive comments as the occasion calls for it. 

Dick is his steady ground, he has seen him at his worst and at his best and loves him just the same, but his father is confusing, uncharted territory and Damian can’t seem to find his footing. Sometimes, things are well, sometimes his father is angry and Damian isn’t sure why or what he did wrong, and Batman is not prone to explanations.

It’s not that Dick had never been angry with him or worried, but he’d always explained why, given Damian options to make it up. And he’d apologize if _he_ messed up, in a manner that Damian had mocked at the time but has since come to appreciate.

Be that as it may, Jason and Tim and Dick have worked out their own mutual accord and Damian is happy for this chance to have Dick all to himself. Stephanie and Jason are off together, having formed an unlikely but firm friendship while Cass patrols alone and Batman and Red Robin work together again.

Nightwing is different than Batman, Damian finds. He’s faster and far more graceful, like shedding Batman has relinquished gravity’s brief hold on him. He talks more, and punches less, laughs even, Damian finds it a not unpleasant change.

They stop a mugging on the way to the abandoned department store that they are scouting. Usually it is warehouses, but there is more than one deserted mall in Gotham, and somebody appears to have taken advantage of it. This particular one was conceived before the advent of strip malls and was once upon a time the home of several floors of sumptuous displays and luxury goods.

Now, it stands as a memorial to the slow death of in-person shopping and the triumph of free shipping, and also possibly the new base of some wannabe crime lord.

They grapple up to the fourth floor and slip in through a broken window. The fourth floor is clear, so they head down, eyes-peeled for any sign of illegal activity. The place itself is utterly silent and still as a tomb (or at least those tombs not occupied by Todd). Standing amid tipsy clothes racks and old “Buy One, Get Two Free” signs it certainly feels like a graveyard.

Nightwing waves him over, and the pair stare down in worry at what he has found.

Phosphorescent red glares up at them from what used to an Estee-Lauder display case.

“Take Venom, say goodbye to fine lines and wrinkles forever,” Nightwing chuckles softly, but Damian knows him well enough now and can hear the worry in his voice.

If someone asked, Damian would argue that he is perfectly capable to dealing with Bane. But deep inside, he knows that Bane is one of their most dangerous rogues, this is not some small-scale criminal. If there is Venom involved, it is bad. Unfortunately, they don’t get a say in whether to continue looking or wait for back-up as one of the dressing room walls topple outwards and Bane himself strides forward.

Worse, what can only be called a horde, of venom enhanced thugs appear in the rest of the doorways and Damian knows that it is all a trap. The tip that sent them there, the broken window, the glow of the Venom just out of view. Looking at Nightwing, he knows that they are wondering the same thing. Was this a trap far any of the bats or them specifically?

“Nightwing and Robin,” Bane rumbles, “Just who I was expecting, and so punctual…”

And that answers _that_ question.

“It’s only polite,” says Nightwing, and Damian wants to hit him, “You should find a better delivery service though, our invitation seems to have gotten lost en route…”

And Damian takes back his earlier desire, because “en route” means that he’d gotten out a distress beacon which is good news considering that Damian had just tried and discovered that their signals are being jammed. Dick must have set his off as soon as he found the venom.

There’s not a lot a time to think after that, Damian is far too busy trying to not get crushed by Bane’s men. Nightwing has both his eskrima sticks out and electrified as he dances just out of Bane’s reach. And if Damian wasn’t occupied with ducking a punch that would have given him permanent brain damage, he would admire the way that he is using Bane’s superpowered blows to take out his own men.

He tries the tactic himself and two more of Bane’s men bite the dust and he is beginning to think that they might not even need the distress beacon. And of course, that is when it goes wrong, Nightwing had managed to cut one of Bane’s venom lines and the floor is slick with the stuff. He sidesteps an unconscious thug and promptly stumbles on the wet floor.

It’s only a second before he rights himself, but it is enough for the last of the goons to deal him a glancing blow that sends him skidding towards the enraged supervillain with broken leg. Nightwing has kept up a steady stream of insults and with half his venom supply cut Bane is beyond rational thought.

This was not how Damian wanted to die.

He can’t get away on only one leg and he refuses to cower, so he pleats a handful of batarangs between his fingers; if Bane kills him, he is going to pay dearly for the pleasure.

Bane is a step away from squashing him to jelly when there is a crack of electricity and Nightwing flips backwards away from the thug that had broken Damian’s leg and lands neatly on Bane’s shoulders, batons crackling as they pump electricity into the villain’s chest. Bane bucks and backs away Damian forgotten for the moment, as Nightwing loses his hold and gets thrown off.

He rights himself mid-air and summersaults to his feet in front of Damian. It’s a silly thought but the artist side of Damian can’t ignore the idea that this would be an impressive picture, Robin injured on the ground, with Nightwing in front of him like a modern-day David, dwarfed by Bane.

The problem is that unlike David Nightwing can’t pick his ground if he wants to protect Damian, and a stationary target can only avoid so many blows before one connects. Dick catches it on his crossed eskrima sticks but the shock of the hit jars his stance and Damian wants to tell him forget it. that father is not going to get here in time and Dick is still mostly uninjured, he can escape.

But for all his training, Damian is still a boy, barely a teenager and he doesn’t want to die here, alone. Dick is panting now, and his movements have lost their grace, Damian sacrifices his last flash-bang to give him a moment to breathe. It works for a moment and Dick shoots him a grateful smile as though Damian isn’t the one who is putting him through this as much as Bane, tethering Nightwing to the ground instead of his natural element of air.

Dick ducks one strike and redirects another and Bane swerves enough that Dick is able to scoop Damian up like a child and head towards the stairwell. Damian has a moment to feel safe and hopeful in Dick’s shaking arms before they are both thrown forward and Damian hits the marble floor.

He shakes the haze from his eyes in time to see Bane snap Nightwing’s arm. And it’s over, Dick won’t move from where he kneels in front of Damian, batons just out of reach as Bane stalks over and pulls his brother up by his broken arm.

“Unhand him this instant, you worthless buffoon,” Damian yells to no avail and he is sure that he is going to watch Dick die in front of him and no one has come to help and then Dick punches Bane in the face with his unbroken arm just as the windows shatter and Batman lands in a suitably dramatic fashion distracting Bane from his broken-winged prey.

“What were you thinking, Richard?” Damian asks quietly, as Dick turns his attention to his brother.

“That he’d have to kill me to get to you,” Dick answers grimly.

“You are a fool,” Damian tells him fondly and accepts the one-armed hug.


End file.
